All numbered streets carry an East or West prefix (for example, East 10th Street or West 10th Street), which changes from one to the other at Broadway below 8th Street, and at Fifth Avenue at 8th Street and above. The numbered streets carry crosstown traffic. In general, but with numerous exceptions, even-numbered streets are one-way eastbound and odd-numbered streets are one-way westbound. Most wider streets, and a few of the narrow ones, carry two-way traffic.

Although the numbered streets begin just north of East Houston Street in the East Village, they generally do not extend west into Greenwich Village, which already had established, named streets when the grid plan was laid out by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811. Some streets in that area that do continue farther west change direction before reaching the Hudson River.

The highest numbered street on Manhattan Island is 220th Street, but Marble Hill is also within the borough of Manhattan, so the highest street number in the borough is 228th Street. The numbering system continues in the Bronx, up to 263rd Street, though east of Van Cortlandt Park the system ends at 243rd Street.[1] The lowest numbered street in Manhattan is East 1st Street, which runs through Alphabet City near East Houston Street. There is also a First Place in Battery Park City.

Contents

East 1st Street begins just north of East Houston Street at Avenue A and continues to the Bowery. Peretz Square, a small triangular sliver park where Houston Street, First Street and First Avenue meet marks the spot where the grid takes hold.[2]

East 2nd Street begins just north of East Houston Street at Avenue C and also continues to the Bowery. The east end of East 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th Streets is Avenue D, with East 6th Street continuing further eastward and connecting to FDR Drive.

The west ends of most of these streets is the Bowery and Third Avenue, except for 3rd Street (formerly Amity Place), which continues to Sixth Avenue; and 4th Street, which extends west and then north to 13th Street in Greenwich Village. Great Jones Street connects East 3rd to West 3rd.

8th and 9th Streets run parallel to each other, beginning at Avenue D, interrupted by Tompkins Square Park at Avenue B, resuming at Avenue A and continuing to Sixth Avenue. West 8th Street is an important local shopping street. 8th Street between Avenue A and Third Avenue is called St Mark's Place, but it is counted in the length below.

M8 bus route operates eastbound on 8th Street and westbound on 9th Street between Avenue A and Sixth Avenue.

Amos, Hammond, and Troy Streets were in the Greenwich Village street grid before 1811. In the middle 19th century they were renamed as the western parts of West 10th, 11th and 12th Streets, respectively.[4]

11th Street is in two parts. It is interrupted by the block containing Grace Church between Broadway and Fourth Avenue. East 11th Street runs from Fourth Avenue to Avenue C and runs past Webster Hall. West 11th Street runs from Broadway to West Street. 11th Street and Sixth Avenue was the location of the Old Grapevine tavern from the 1700s to its demolition in the early 20th century.

12th Street is in two parts. Traffic on most of 12th Street runs from west to east. The first segment of West 12th Street runs southwest to northeast from West Street to Greenwich Street, then turns straight west to east. At Fifth Avenue, West 12th Street becomes East 12th Street, and ends at Avenue C. One block of 12th Street is for pedestrians only and resumes at Szold Place, which runs from north to south toward 10th Street as a continuation of the flow of traffic from East 12th Street which runs east to west from Avenue D to Szold Place.

Additionally, Little West 12th Street runs parallel to West 13th Street from West Street to the northeast corner of Ninth Avenue and Gansevoort Street.

13th Street is in three parts. The first runs from Avenue C to Avenue D. The second starts at a dead end, just before Avenue B, and runs to Greenwich Avenue, and the third part is from Eighth Avenue to Tenth Avenue.

Traffic on 15th Street moves from east to west. The street formerly started at the FDR Drive, but most of the street between the Drive and Avenue C was permanently closed, as was the 15th Street exit from the Drive, after the September 11 attacks, due to the presence of the Con Edison East River Generating Station there. Only Con Edison personnel have access to the closed portion.

Traffic on 16th Street moves from west to east. It starts at Eleventh Avenue at the Hudson River, and runs until it is interrupted at UnionSquare West (Broadway) by Union Square. It picks up again on the other side of the park at Union Square East (Park Avenue South), but is shortly stopped again by Stuyvesant Square from between Second and Third Avenues (Rutherford Place) to between First and Second Avenues (Perlman Place). At First Avenue, it is interrupted by Stuyvesant Town, and starts up again at Avenue C. It then dead ends between that avenue and the FDR Drive.

20th Street starts at Avenue C, and 21st and 22nd Streets begin at First Avenue. They all end at Eleventh Avenue. Travel on the last block of the 20th, 21st and 22nd Streets, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, is in the opposite direction than it is on the rest of the respective street. 20th Street is very wide from the Avenue C to First Avenue.

Along the southern perimeter of Gramercy Park, between Gramercy Park East and Gramercy Park West, 20th Street is known as Gramercy Park South.

Between Second and Third Avenues, 21st Street is alternatively known as Police Officer Anthony Sanchez Way.[9] Along the northern perimeter of Gramercy Park, between Gramercy Park East and Gramercy Park West, 21st Street is known as Gramercy Park North.

23rd Street is another main numbered street in Manhattan. It begins at Avenue C/FDR Drive and ends at Eleventh Avenue. Its length is 3.1 km/1.9m. It has two-way travel. On 23rd Street there are five local subway stations:

Some of the most notable venues are Bungalow 8, Marquee, Suzie Wong, Cain, and Pink Elephant. Since 2011, starting at 530 W. 27th and continuing down almost the entire rest of the block, the former warehouse spaces of clubs Twilo, Guesthouse, Home, Bed, and more have been repurposed by British immersive theater group Punchdrunk as The McKittrick Hotel, the site of their theatrical experience Sleep No More.

As with all of Manhattan's numbered streets from 60th to 109th Street, 80th Street is divided by Central Park into eastern and western sections. Traffic on 80th Street, on both sides of the park, runs west to east.

120-130 East 80th Street, with three of the four East 80th Street Houses; the Astor House is on the left, the Whitney House on the right, and the Dillon House is between them.

Significant buildings on West 80th Street include those in the Riverside Drive–West 80th–81st Street Historic District, on both sides of the street's block between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue, such as the "Gothicesque" row houses at 307–317 West 80th Street designed by Charles H. Israels, and those at 319–323 West 80th Street designed by Clarence F. True. True also designed the "vaguely Georgian" 328 West 80th Street on the same block, which also contains George F. Pelham II's 411 West End Avenue, an Art Deco apartment building.[11]

Significant buildings on East 80th Street include the American Irish Historical Society at 991 Fifth Avenue; the houses of Franklyn and Edna Woolworth and her two sisters at 2, 4, and 6 East 80th Street, built by F. W. Woolworth and designed by C. P. H. Gilbert; the postmodern 45 East 80th Street at Madison Avenue, designed by Liebman Liebman & Associates; the raw concrete 1967 Manhattan Church of Christ by Eggers & Higgins; 52 East 80th Street between Madison and Park, built in the 1890s.[12]

The axis of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine is aligned with 112th Street. The street is interrupted by the cathedral's west front at Amsterdam Avenue, and the iconic east end of the cathedral looms over the street's path where it continues through central Harlem at a lower elevation, east of Morningside Park.

A monument to Samuel J. Tilden, the 25th New York governor and Democratic presidential candidate in 1876, stands at the foot of 112th Street along Riverside Drive.

122nd Street is mentioned in the movie Taxi Driver by main character Travis Bickle as the location where a fellow cab driver is assaulted with a knife. The street and the surrounding neighborhood of Harlem is then referred to as "Mau Mau Land" by another character named Wizard, slang indicating it is a majority black area.

The 132nd Street Community Garden is located on 132nd Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Malcolm X Boulevard. In 1997, the lot received a garden makeover; the Borough President's office funded the installation of a $100,000 water distribution system that keeps the wide variety of trees green. The garden also holds a goldfish pond and several benches. The spirit of the neighborhood lives in gardens like this one, planted and tended by local residents.

West of Fort Washington Avenue, 181st Street is largely residential, bordering Hudson Heights and having a few shops to serve the local residents. East of Fort Washington Avenue, the street becomes increasingly commercial, becoming dominated entirely by retail stores where the street reaches Broadway and continues as such until reaching the Harlem River. It is the area's major shopping district.

Manhattan has no streets numbered 194th, 195th, 197th, 198th, 199th, or 200th. The Dyckman Street station was formerly called "Dyckman Street–200th Street", but there has never been a street in Manhattan with that number.[22]

^Horowitz, Joseph. "MUSIC; Czech Composer, American Hero", The New York Times, February 10, 2002. Retrieved November 3, 2007. "IN 1991, the New York City Council was petitioned by Beth Israel Hospital to permit the demolition of a small row house at 327 East 17th Street, once the home of Antonín Dvořák."

^Ryzik, Melena. "Dance Hall Daze", The New York Times, November 5, 2006. Retrieved October 7, 2007. "On my first night out, after a cruise through club row, the area around West 27th Street that is home to cavernous venues like Crobar and dens of exclusivity like Bungalow 8, I hit the Lower East Side."

^Remarks of the Commissioners for Laying out Streets and Roads in the City of New York, Under the Act of April 3, 1807. Retrieved May 2, 2007. "These streets are all sixty feet wide except fifteen, which are one hundred feet wide, viz.: Numbers fourteen, twenty-three, thirty-four, forty-two, fifty-seven, seventy-two, seventy-nine, eighty-six, ninety-six, one hundred and six, one hundred and sixteen, one hundred and twenty-five, one hundred and thirty-five, one hundred and forty-five, and one hundred and fifty-five—the block or space between them being in general about two hundred feet."

^200th STREET, Manhattan-Bronx, Forgotten New York. Retrieved June 19, 2017. "Presently, Manhattan numbered streets skip from West 196th to West 201st, and both of those streets go for one block or less. Manhattan has never had a 200th Street."